Each year about 3 million children in the United States alone visit emergency room departments for fall-related injuries. A major cause is falling down stairs. These falls result in more open wounds, fractures and brain injuries than all other accidents of children. Nearly one hundred children under the age of 9 die per year from falls. A major problem is going up and down stairs for toddlers. These are infants between 18 months and 4 years of age. They are old enough to be able to crawl up stairs, but not typically tall enough to be able to use the adult-height banister.
The solutions suggested to date have basically involved a lower height stair rail. For example, Roberts (U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,242) teaches a secondary railing that hangs below the primary railing. Ruhnke (U.S. Pat. No. 3,269,553) teaches the use of adjustable shelf-type hangars to adjust the height of the railing. Turner (U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,201) teaches a secondary handrail for toddlers as does Jaworski (U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,528) and Koza (U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,166) and finally Sedlack (U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,854).
Hartman (U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,255) teaches a double rail telescoping system. Stevens (U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,100) teaches a special hand railing for toddlers. Another approach is the use of an adjustable railing system. This is taught by Rezek (U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,433), Toomey (U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,194) and finally Marsden (U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,968). An interesting solution is that of Flory (U.S. Pat. No. 6,345,475) who basically teaches an obstacle course of gates on alternate sides of the stairway to prevent people from falling more than a few feet if they do stumble.
For completion one should mention some of the solutions for another safety problem. This problem involves children falling through the balusters in open stairways. This includes a panel of screens as taught by Langan (U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,194), the Railnet product (attached literature) Plexiglas sheets as taught by Bodzin (U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,545), and finally Dandrea (U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,715) which weaves rigid fabric in and out of the balusters to form a barrier for the toddlers.
Thus in spite of the need for a simple safety system to allow toddlers to more safely go up and down stairs, none exist. The ideal system would be something that can be packed in a small box for easy retail sale and transport to a home, can be installed without the use of any tools, and leave no permanent marks on the home in any way. In spite of the need for such a product none has existed to date.